The new phone books are here! The new phone books are here!

You may have heard of him. Part boy, part rat. He’s been in the papers.

Not to be confused with the bat boy. That guy’s just a publicity hound. And a total name dropper. Phew.

Anyway, according to the Ratboy, IDG — the parent of Macworld — is hiring a Mac reporter for the mother ship. While IDG does frequently cross-post Macworld stories to its various publications, a dedicated Mac reporter at the parent will likely mean more Mac coverage and wider distribution.

That’s ridiculous. The IDG News Service has beat editors that cover other platforms — Linux, mobile, PCs, Microsoft software and so on. It only makes sense that they’d want to fill in the gaps in their coverage, which right now they’re having to make up for by syndicating content from individual IDG pubs like Macworld and Computerworld.